Pfleger puts Obama in unwelcome spot again

Priest's attack on Clinton stirs national firestorm

May 31, 2008|By Manya A. Brachear and John McCormick, TRIBUNE REPORTERS and Tribune correspondent Christi Parsons contributed to this report from Washington.

Rev. Michael Pfleger's face is well-known in the Chicago area, one of the many iconoclastic characters who inhabit a city with a long history of racial division and political activism.

So while his latest controversial statements may not be overly surprising here, they have generated another national firestorm for Sen. Barack Obama, whose campaign has been left shaking its collective head over how the presidential candidate could be embroiled in yet another flap involving his South Side church.

Pfleger, who has had numerous run-ins with Chicago's Roman Catholic archdiocese involving his political activism, mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ last weekend. As he stood as a guest speaker, the priest suggested the former first lady is a white elitist who felt entitled to the Democratic nomination.

In doing so, the otherwise politically astute and street-savvy priest reignited a debate about Obama's church that had nearly quieted down after controversial remarks by Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. surfaced earlier this spring.

The Internet video of his appearance emerged just as Obama's campaign was preparing for a crucial meeting Saturday in Washington, where a Democratic Party rules committee is set to deliberate the fate of delegates elected in January primaries in Michigan and Florida that violated party rules.

A campaign aide also confirmed that Obama plans to travel to St. Paul for a Tuesday evening rally, where he is expected to essentially claim a Democratic nomination victory following the last primaries in Montana and South Dakota. The capital of Minnesota, a battleground state, will co-host this summer's Republican National Convention.

In Chicago, meanwhile, the area's top Catholic leader and the state's senior senator condemned Pfleger's actions and suggested they hurt Obama's efforts to start a substantive national conversation on race.

Cardinal Francis George said in a statement that Pfleger has promised him not to publicly mention any candidate by name this summer and fall and that he will abide by the "discipline common to all Catholic priests."

George said Pfleger's words crossed a line.

"Racial issues are both political and moral and are also highly charged," he said. "Words can be differently interpreted, but Father Pfleger's remarks about Sen. Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack. I regret that deeply."

'He went overboard'

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Obama mentor, condemned Pfleger's words in a meeting with Tribune editors and reporters and said they were not helpful in trying to discuss race nationwide.

"I like Mike. He's my friend," Durbin said. "But he went overboard."

Some in Obama's camp apparently were surprised that live broadcasts from Trinity are still streamed on the Internet, even after Wright's sermons had generated the greatest controversy yet in the Illinois senator's campaign. The church says the practice will continue.

After initially responding with a speech on race, Obama in late April was forced to denounce remarks made by Wright after his longtime pastor made a fiery appearance at the National Press Club, where he reaffirmed his view that the U.S. government may have initiated the AIDS epidemic to wipe out minorities, and praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Obama has not attended the church since the controversy over Wright erupted in mid-March. His campaign said he has visited Pfleger's St. Sabina Catholic Church only rarely, with his last trip there being in 2005, the year after he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

"When Sen. Clinton's supporters see those comments, they are understandably angered by them," Wolfson said. "It's important for the spirit of [party] unity ... for the senator and his campaign to condemn this specifically."

In his only public appearance of the day Friday, Obama made no mention of Pfleger during a speech in Great Falls, Mont. As the story broke Thursday, his campaign issued a statement expressing disappointment in the priest's "divisive, backward-looking rhetoric."

Obama's campaign said Pfleger withdrew himself about two weeks ago from an advisory council formed to look for ways to boost the candidate's standing among the nation's Catholics. An archdiocese spokeswoman said the cardinal had asked Pfleger to step down.

Turned around church

Pfleger's maverick style has regularly set him apart from Chicago's Catholic clergy, dating to his seminary days, when he protested the Vietnam War and befriended Black Panthers on the city's West Side.